The Malaya Restaurant: Good Food Month Let's Do Lunch, King Street Wharf, Sydney (27 Oct 2016)

39 Lime Street, King Street Wharf, Sydney NSW 2000
http://www.themalaya.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/themalayarestaurant/

Let's Do Malaysian Lunch

Dined with three work colleagues for a birthday lunch and we were all very happy with the Let's Do Lunch shared menu ($38) at The Malaya. Salt & Pepper Prawns were an immediate crowd pleaser served up first. Nice thin batter and decent sized prawns. Chicken San Choy Bow was tasty with nicely presented lettuce cups. Kapitan King Prawns came with a decent amount of sauce to help flavour your bowl of steamed rice. The Szechuan Eggplant had a good crispy coating in a tasty sauce. Even though you can get a bottle of Yalumba The Y Series 2015 Riesling for under $10 at a bottle shop we all liked our glass of wine very much and it went well with the meal. Coffee wasn't included with their Let's Do Lunch even though many other restaurants were including a coffee. Pleasant water views and efficient service. Was a pretty popular place ranging from couples to large table groups. We thought it was pretty good value for the variety of dishes you got to sample. There was even some reasonably priced desserts on offer but we opted to save ourselves from the calories and seek our sugar hit from the Pink Ribbon Day afternoon tea back at work.

Zhu Canton: Official Launch, Randwick (22 Aug 2016)

Level 3, 135 Alison Road, Randwick NSW 2031
http://www.zhucanton.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/zhucanton

Zhu Canton's official launch

[LAUNCH EVENT INVITE thnx to The Society Group]

Located in The Randwick Club the official opening was a smorgasbord of classic yum cha delights in the form of dumpling stations and trolleys that made their way around the vast space. There's plenty of seating and a city view to be had from the non-smoking balcony on Level 3. Favourite eat of the night was the Salt & Pepper Prawns with a nice thin batter and a pleasant chilli kick thrown in. I'd be keen to try their Salt & Pepper Lobster now from the live tank. I thought the Siu Mai Dumplings and Vegetable Spring Rolls were good. Strangely it was very hard to get some chilli sauce and even more difficult to get some soy sauce for the table for our dumpling dipping — not quite sure what was going on there #saucegate. An abundance of Mango Pancakes were on offer for dessert. Quite nice although out of the three I had I wish they all had a bit more cream in them. Zhu Canton certainly looks like a good addition on the surface for some yum cha dining on the weekend which I'm sure my family will be visiting soon. I'm really hoping they do a mean salt & pepper squid and crispy shredded beef as well. One downside for locals is you'll need to be a member of the club to gain access which looks to be $11 for a one year membership.